Covid-19 vaccination and risk of thrombosis

The Société Française de Médecine Vasculaire (SFMV) and the Groupe Français d'Etudes sur l'Hémostase et la Thrombose (GFHT) issued a press release this Friday, April 2, 2021, on the issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccination and the risk of thrombosis. Commentary by Pr Gabrielle Sarlon, Vascular Physician at the CHU de la Timone in Marseille and Ambassador for Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes.

Phlebitis, or deep vein thrombosis, is the formation of a blood clot in a vein, mainly in the lower limbs. When a fragment of this clot breaks loose, it can migrate to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism. The risk of phlebitis and pulmonary embolism is 1 to 2 cases per 1,000 inhabitants per year in France. Vaccines are not associated with an increased risk of thrombosis, even with approved COVID-19 vaccines, notably the vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca. However, an extremely rare form of blood clot in the brain, known as cerebral sinus vein thrombosis (CSVT), associated with a reduction in blood platelets (cells involved in coagulation), has occurred in a small number of people receiving AstraZeneca's vaccine, in the order of 1:250,000 to 1:1,000,000. The mechanism of these thromboses observed in the brain with AstraZeneca's vaccine is immunological, related to an exaggerated activation of these blood platelets which, by aggregating with each other, are at the origin of the clot. People who have already had a thrombosis should be vaccinated; they are no more at risk of developing CSST and can receive AstraZeneca Vaccine. No preventive treatment is required before or after vaccination. However, if you are taking anticoagulant therapy, it should not be interrupted. If you are on anticoagulant therapy, apply light pressure to the vaccine site to prevent bleeding.

Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes alerts to anticipate and act on venous thrombo-embolic disease, and relays news with comments from expert ambassadors. Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes has established a partnership with the French Society of Vascular Medicine to take action on arterial and venous vascular diseases, which are highly conditioned by women's hormonal status.

Read the press release

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